Padding your resume

[auld argonian]

Al Gini, a professor of business ethics and philosophy at Loyola University, is often on our local NPR radio station to point out the ironies and foibles of modern life.

Today he was talking about politicians using misleading speech. Two great examples.

If you spent ten years in Leavenworth and three years at the Betty Ford Center, you say that you have "...spent several years acquiring an eclectic education in some of the nation's most notable institutions."

If you worked as a bar tender, you can say that you "...have spent many years in public service."

Get the picture?

Reminds one of the old routine about slandering one's opponent by saying things that sound negative but aren't:

My opponent is an acknowledged philatalist! He is a known sexigenarian who's wife is a thespian! He has been known to keep phonographic literature in his possession and has been observed masticating in public!

Best

AA

[katmills2005]

My opponent is an acknowledged philatalist! He is a known sexigenarian who's wife is a thespian! He has been known to keep phonographic literature in his possession and has been observed masticating in public!

The sad truth is, I bet there are folks out there who would read a statement like this and not understand the joke.

Thanks, I needed a good chuckle.

Kat

[cavscout]

I bet one of those dinosaur books with words for other words in it would be handy for this.

[davedove]

I bet one of those dinosaur books

Oh no, not the dreaded thesaurus that attacks you with synonyms.

[way2fractious]

dinosaur book... dreaded thesaurus... I miss 'em... Nothing produced by Microsoft has a worthy thesaurus to help obsfucate any occasion.

[cavscout]

They helped make occasions unclear too!

[Yaish]

Remember the guy in charge of FEMA during hurricane Katrina? Mike Brown I think it was, and he padded his resume with a simple subtle change in a few words. He put that he was the "assistant Mayor", rather than the "Mayor's assistant" of some city.

Food Network Chef Robert Irvine actually had his contract with Food Network over a padded resume as well. In his resume he claimed several honors that while technically somewhat correct, were presented in a disingenuous way. Things like being the personal chef for the Queen and multiple Presidents and such. In reality he was one of many chefs who worked to prepare dinners on a few occasions.

[kiltimabar]

The sad truth is, I bet there are folks out there who would read a statement like this and not understand the joke.

Thanks, I needed a good chuckle.

Kat

Two other perfectly innocent words that have actually gotten people in a lot of trouble and controversy:

niggardly
pedagogy

[Rex_Tremende]

dinosaur book... dreaded thesaurus... I miss 'em... Nothing produced by Microsoft has a worthy thesaurus to help obsfucate any occasion.

Ah, but some online resources can help if you don't quite know how to spell a word. When I'm stuck for exactly the right expression, I like the hyperlinking feature of thesaurus.com and dictionary.com to help make sure I'm saying what I mean.

An early version of MS Bookshelf had a wonderful, completely integrated electronic dictionary, thesaurus, encycolpedia, almanac, and collection of quotations. It ran on Win98 but future versions of Windows wouldn't support it. Today's internet is not as concise, or always as accurate, but probably much richer.

Regards,
Rex.

[emolas]

Two other perfectly innocent words that have actually gotten people in a lot of trouble and controversy:

niggardly
pedagogy

I think some politician here got in trouble last year for using the word "niggardly". It was not too long after some other politician used the equally innocuous word "tarbaby". It's funny how some people get upset over words that SEEM to either be bad or have roots that are bad but have no problem using other words that DO have offensive roots like "gyp".